BBVA - Press Room

• Mestalla field was the venue for the presentation of the first chut (kick) of the Day of Your Life contest, which will be held at half-time of the match between Valencia and Barcelona during week 7 of the Liga BBVA soccer league
• The first four BBVA customers drawn in the sweepstakes will fire a shot from center field at Valencia’s stadium on October 17 or 18, with a chance to win a prize of up to €360,000.
• Around 1,000 children in the stands watched the first practice session of the chutadores (kickers), who are being trained by former professional soccer player Kiko Narváez
• For the third year running, BBVA and the Spanish Soccer League (FLP) have a strategic agreement to sponsor Spanish soccer, bolstering BBVA’s commitment to ‘the beautiful game’ and turning BBVA into “the Soccer Bank”

Today, on the field of Mestalla, the Valencia soccer team’s stadium, the first four winners of the Day in Your Life drawing for the 2009–2010 season were presented. At half-time during the upcoming match between Valencia and Barcelona, they will have the chance to win the prize of €180,000 accumulated from last year’s edition. Two of the ‘chutadores’ (kickers) will have a chance to double their winnings and take home €360,000 since their salaries are deposited directly in BBVA accounts. BBVA’s regional sales manager, José Ballester, Valencia CF sports director, Fernando Gómez Colomer, and former pro soccer player Kiko Narváez, hosted the presentation of this exclusive BBVA event, in which around 1,000 Valencian schoolchildren attended, along with former Valencia soccer stars Paco Camarasa and Fernando Giner.

Marta Cristina Ferrer of Valencia, Giada Boloventa, an Italian who resides in Tenerife, Alejandro Sánchez of Albacete and María Dolores Díez of Alicante are the first four BBVA customers selected for this season’s Day of Your Life contest. For the first time, as luck would have it, one contestant -María Dolores Díez- is not only a BBVA customer, but also a bank employee.

The four chutadores will attempt to score a goal on October 17 or 18 during the half-time break of the match between Valencia and Barcelona during week 7 of the Liga BBVA soccer season. They will attempt to win a prize that now stands at  

€180,000, as no chutador was able to score a goal in either of the last two matches in last year’s contest. Of the four winners of this year’s first drawing in the Day of Your Life 2009-2010, two (Alejando Sánchez Bleda and María Dolores Díez San Martín) have a chance to double their prize and win €360,000 as their wages are deposited directly to their BBVA accounts.

Kiko Narváez, the face of BBVA
 
BBVA will be joined this season by Kiko Narváez, a former soccer player, and currently a TV and radio sports commentator. ‘Kiko’, the new face of BBVA in this sponsorship, will coach and give advice to the BBVA contestants on how to kick from center field.

Mestalla field played host today to nearly 1,000 children from different schools in Valencia in the ‘marea azul’ (blue tide) box, which they made by wearing the blue Liga BBVA jersey, and the first practice session of the four contestants for the prize, overseen by Kiko Narváez and in front of former Valencia players Paco Camarasa and Fernando Giner. These two players signed autographs for around 150 children, who were allowed to go down on the field.

Day of Your Life

For the second year running, the excitement of soccer returns to the homes of BBVA customers with the Day of Your Life campaign. This is an innovative BBVA campaign linked to the bank’s sponsorship of the LFP and is a privilege for the bank’s customers. By adding just €100 to their accounts or making credit-card purchases, BBVA customers can become eligible to participate in the monthly Day of Your Life sweepstakes. The main prize in the drawing is a chance to score a goal from center field during half-time at a Liga BBVA match.

After the success of last season, in which 2.2 million accounts -or 42% of the total- were eligible to participate, BBVA hopes this year will set a new record for customer participation.

Liga BBVA, the best soccer league in the world

For the last three seasons (2008-2001), BBVA has been sponsor and title sponsor of the Spanish professional soccer league, LFP, the world’s best soccer league, featuring 8 of the world’s top 10 players. This has made BBVA the ‘Soccer Bank.’

Liga BBVA is among the most widely followed by soccer fans, achieving record audience numbers last season, with over 300 million net viewers of broadcast soccer matches. The biggest success was the Barcelona-Real Madrid match, with nearly 14.5 million TV viewers.